The great Diego Maradona watched keenly last night, as Napoli favourite Dries Martins equalled Marek Hamsik in the clubs all-time top scorer chart. Whilst the feat was admirable, there will only be one true great among the Naples faithful.
Previous to the last decade, there was only two players considered to be all-time greats among the football pantheon – Pele and Maradona. Sensationally, two more have entered the frey – Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Undeniably the Portugese talisman deserves to be in the conversation, Messi is considered by football pundits to be on a different level, making a mockery when it comes to online football betting.
But how does the Barcelona man rank next to his fellow Argentine? Allow us to answer that impossible question.
Stats
Let’s not beat around the bush, Lionel Messi’s goalscoring exploits are utterly unheard off. Whilst both Brazilian legends Pele and Romarion have boasted of fanciul records, Messi has smashed the records in-front of our very eyes at the absolute peek of world football.
626 goals in 715 games (and counting) for Barcelona is reminiscent of customising a player in a video game to maximum attrubutes, this making the whole affor a tad unrealistic.
Maradona record of 300 career goals is dwarfed in this respect.
Ability
An impossibly accurate left and right peg, Messi regularly make defending opponents look like children as they desperately try to get the ball of him. Whilst the multi Champions League winner opts for an efficient frantic dribbling style, watching Maradona run with the ball was akin to poetry.
The World Cup winners efforts in the 1986 World Cup are a fine example of the man at his very best. After earning the furious gaze of opposition supporters after clearly handling the ball past Peter Shilton, the tournaments Quarter Final against England saw Maradona make a mockery of Peter Raid and co on the way to the greatest goal of all time.
It’s close, but we back Maradona for this
Achievements
This is where things get interesting.
Among a host of cups, Messi has attained an incredible 10 La Liga titles compared to Maradona’s 0. Added to that the Barca man has 4 Champions League winners medals. Maradona? Again zero.
Whilst the former Napoli talisman did claim 2 Serie A titles, it’s his World Cup exploits that raise above Messi in the achievement stakes.
Despite coming close in 2014, Messi has yet to win on the ultimate stage.
Maradaona has made the tournament his own. Admittedly the side of 86 weren’t the mugs that many have made them out to be, “El Pibe de Oro” dragged Argentina to a WC win on their own continent with some earth shattering performances – contributing or scoring in 10 of the 14 games.
It cannot be undersetimated just what a cultiral phenomonan Maradona is in his Native country. Messi on the overhand is dealt a mixxed reception. Perhaps seemingly seeing his true home as Catalonia, critissm from the Argentinain press has seen the player officially retire, before reluctantly returning to the frey for the 2018 WC.
Then there’s those two Serie A title wins. Overcoming massive financial disadvantages, Maradona largely single handidly gave Naples unprecented glory with an unstoppable tenure.